Raiffeisen continues talks to sell Belarusian subsidiary bank to UAE investor - report

MINSK. May 20 (Interfax) - Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) is continuing negotiations to sell its 87.74% stake in Belarusian lender Priorbank and its subsidiaries to the United Arab Emirates' Soven 1 Holding Limited, Priorbank CEO Vadim Matyushkin said.

The potential buyers "came to Minsk, they had some meetings," Matyushkin said, but he did not disclose the details of the negotiations, Belarussian website ProDelo reported.

"Priorbank is in principle not aware of the details of the deal," Matyushkin said. If the bank will be brought into the negotiations, it will only be at the final stage, he said.

Matyushkin did not rule out that the new owner will change the bank's strategy, the report said. RBI will continue to support the bank's services and remain a correspondent bank for some time after the deal is closed, ProDelo said.

RBI said earlier that it was in active negotiations with Soven 1 Holding Limited that could lead to its potential exit from the Belarusian market.

The deal could lead to about 225 million euros in losses for RBI due to the difference between the selling price and the book value of Priobank's capital. When the deal closes, the group expects a negative impact of 450 million euros on its consolidated profit related to reclassification of losses. This reclassification is not expected to affect RBI's regulatory capital and the deal is expected to have a minimal impact on the group's CET1 adequacy ratio.

Priorbank, which began operating in Belarus at the end of 1989 and became part of RBI Group in 2003, is one of the largest banks in Belarus by assets.